I saw the idea for these invitations in one of the MANY diy wedding books I bought. I loved the stuff in the middle - and the great thing is you can change the theme to fit the occasion! The invitations in the book were save-the-dates for a beach themed wedding. So the middle had sand and a starfish.... sooooo cute!
I knew I had to attempt to make these and I thought the perfect time would be for my friends birthday party. I had some Zebra print with pink invitations left over from another friends bachelorette party, I loved the Zebra, but I didn't need the middle. Then it hit me, cut out the middle and make the confetti invites! The supplies are really quite simple. I used a light pink for the back (cut 6"x8"). A medium dark purple for the invitation wording (cut 5.25"x7.5"). The Zebra invitation with the window came in 5"x7". The window dimensions are 1"x0.5". The transparency paper is cut to 4.5"x6". The hardest part was scaling the rest of the invitation to the zebra print. The invitations in the book were 4.5"x5.5".... Mine were much bigger due to the Zebra print.
Non-paper supplies are double-stick tape, double-sided foam adhesive strips, fun stuff for the middle, and cutting utensils.
Here is what Zebra invitation looked like at first.
Then I cut out the middle. I started to cut the middle out with a craft knife, but the blade was getting a little dull and I'm not confident in my cutting straight skills. Also, since I wasn't using the middle this time, I figure why not use it again another time! I used the craft knife to start the cut then I finished with scissors.
After I got all those cut out, I set them aside and moved on to the back. It's hard to tell what kind of pink I used, but it's light floral pink. This piece has to be about an inch or so bigger than the zebra print because the invitation is going to be layered. After I got those cut out, I cut the purple paper. Again, slightly smaller than the pink paper.
Once the pink and purple papers are cut, adhere them together with the double stick tape and set aside.
I set the window card on the purple paper BEFORE putting the translucent sheet on so I knew how much room I had to work with so I didn't cut off the writing. I'm proud I thought of that before I messed up :)
After that was done, I glued the translucent paper to the back of the zebra print card. A little glue is fine to the get translucent paper to stick well enough before you put the double-side foam tape on.
While still working on the back of the window card, set the double-side foam tape. *NOTE* If there are any gaps, then the inclusions could fall out!!!
Once the foam is placed, and your confident there are no gaps, remove the protective lining from both sides and the bottom - but leave the top piece. This will allow you to secure the window card in place, and pour in your inclusions.
Once the window frame is firmly in place, and the top is still open, insert the confetti (this is what I used). This is a situation where a little goes a looooong way. Trust me!
Now, remove the top protective lining and press the frame firmly in place. And you're done!!!
I tried to leave a little room at the bottom of the invite to allow room for the confetti to settle while still being able to read the words.
I am a little disappointed that the translucent paper I have really isn't all that translucent. The paper is marked translucent on the cover!! So, I'm on the look out for truly see-through "paper". I already have a few scrapbooking ideas in mind to use a technique like this!
I tried to explain this step-by-step as best I could. But, I'm happy to clarify a step if needed. It is my first official blog post after all :)
